A3 2.0Tdi Quattro lost all drive on motorway?

Hi lads,
i was wondering if you could help me out with another problem i have ?

Earlier tonight, i was pulling up the slip road in third to join the motorway, put it in forth, got about 50yrds down the motorway and lost all drive, engine just revved? so i had to roll to a stop on the hard shoulder.
The car still idles no problem but you can put it in any gear quite easily without dipping the clutch with no affect to the car, still idles as it should.
Within minutes the police where behind me saying i had 20 minutes to move it or they will recover it for a fee of £150 (nice of them), i got my mate to pick me up so i could collect my van to tow it back home quickly as possible

Now its home again, i thought i'd post on here to see if any one has ideas of what the problem could be?

has it been clunking on/off the power at all? the o/s drive shaft, is it the type where it has part of the shaft as a tube with a support bearing bolted to a bracket off the block?
where it joins the gearbox is externally splined on to the gearbox drive. weve had a couple of these and transporters, sharans, tourans.... where rust has got into the spines and worn them out.
leaving the car with no drive to the o/s shaft... so your able to just select first without using the clutch...... all they made was a slight metal grinding noise on doing so......

the way to check this for certain is to put the clutch down as normal, select second at a stand still, lift the clutch up..... obviously the car doesnt move but does the speedo register any speed?? this means the clutch is fine and the gearbox is turning the diff... but with no drive to one shaft the sun/planet gears are spinning.

Oh man... Was hoping nobody would mention the clutch.. Does anyone know what sort of price I'd be looking at for clutch and labour? Am not sure on engine code but it's a 2005 2.0tdi sline Quattro, the powers been fine murran until last night, will give your method a go today and let yous know..
Cheers lads

Useful Searches

About US

Our community has been around for many years and pride ourselves on offering unbiased, critical discussion among people of all different backgrounds. We are working every day to make sure our community is one of the best.